The former chief executive of the Foundation for Medical Services, Brian St John, yesterday called for the withdrawal of allegations that he had hidden documents related to the construction of Mater Dei Hospital.

Mr St John, now chief executive of the Nationalist Party’s company Media.Link Communications, filed a judicial protest against Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and Health Minister Konrad Mizzi.

In his protest, Mr St John said that, in a television programme, Dr Mizzi had claimed that he (Mr St John) was responsible for the waiver given to contractors charged with building the new hospital and had purposely hidden the documents in a safe.

Dr Mizzi had said, in reply to journalists’ questions, that Mr St John had signed a contract that gave contractors Skanska a waiver of responsibility on the building of the hospital.

Mr St John reiterated that he had no access to the safe in question when he was still the foundation’s employee, adding that the FMS had only been set up a year after the hospital became operational.

He said that until his resignation, when he was not asked to give a proper handover, he had never been involved in the construction phase of the hospital and had never signed any waiver documents.

Mr St John said the allegation, repeated also by Dr Muscat, was untrue and called on Dr Muscat and Dr Mizzi to retract the claims made and apologise.

He added that it was evident that the comments were part of a campaign to smear him simply because he was now an employee of the Nationalist Party.